


brother bear

by confidantes



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-15 10:20:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4603125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/confidantes/pseuds/confidantes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He watches you grow up in a world falling apart.</p><p>(Lambo, ages five to fifteen.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	brother bear

**Author's Note:**

> apologies beforehand that i canNOT write lambo to save my life

-

 

You’re five years old when you meet Stupidera. You scream at him to play with you, he calls you annoying, you call him weak, he punches you in the head, you start crying. This process repeats itself for about a year, and becomes so ingrained in your daily life that you expect it to be like this for the rest of your life.

So much so that by the time you’re six years old, you don’t even realize the gentle way he lifts you by your armpits and into his arms on calmer days.

 

-

 

You’re eight years old when Stupidera shows up one day to pick you up from school.

“Why are you here?! Why isn’t Mama or Haru-nee here?” You cross your arm and pout your lips because, hey – you really love the women in your life, you’re not embarrassed to admit it.

Stupidera just rolls his eyes. “Shut up and stop complaining. I had to leave school early just to come meet you. Don’t make me wait even longer.”

“Okay,” you grumble, “but you have to buy me ice cream later!”

“Sure thing,” he says, lighting up a cigarette, “just c'mon already.”

You think it’s strange today how he hasn’t fought you one bit. You think it’s even stranger that when you stop at corners, he puts an arm out and checks both ways before proceeding, that when you get ice cream from a local stand his eyes hover over every single person in the vicinity, how his fingers seem extra fidgety, extra tense. How he has stopped smoking around you (Bianchi had yelled at him about secondhand smoke around the kids) but today he has put another lit fuse between his lips.

You halt in your steps, tears welling up in your eyes. “Wh-what’s going on? Why are you acting weird today? Where’s Mama and Haru-nee?”

He scowls and turns around. “Stupid cow, nothing’s wrong. Just keep walking, okay? I don’t have time for this bullshit.”

But this time, you don’t listen to him. (Have you ever listened to him?) Your feet stay planted to asphalt, and you dip your head forward, tears and snot waterfalling down your face. The ice cream scoop rolls off and plops onto the sidewalk with a pathetic sound.

Stupidera doesn’t yell, doesn’t hit you, doesn’t do anything mean. Instead, he kneels and puts his hand on your shoulders. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything,” he says quietly (so quietly that sometimes, when you look back, you think you might’ve imagined it), “but everyone’s safe, okay? So don’t worry and just follow me.”

(A few years later they’ll tell you why he was so kind to you that day. They’ll tell you that Gokudera ran away from home when he was eight and met twins Cruelty and Hardship on the streets of Italy. They’ll remind you that you ran away from home at five and met the kindest family you could possibly dream of. He wouldn’t be so lucky.)

He snuffs out the cigarette underneath his shoe. “C'mon, Lambo. Mama and Haru-nee are waiting for you at home.”

You’re so excited at the prospect that you don’t even notice that for once, he hasn’t called you  _stupid cow._ “Really? Why didn’t Stupidera say so before?”

He scoffs, standing up again. “You’re such a freaking mama’s boy.”

(But he is too.)

 

-

 

You’re twelve when the Vongola move to Italy. Reborn, for once, hadn’t pressed the issue, but Tsuna insists on it. Everyone remarks how he is slowly stepping into his role as Vongola Decimo, but you’re just miffed about having to leave home.

Which is strange, as the Bovinos have lived in the straits of Italy for hundreds of years, yet this place halfway across the world is what truly resonates with your heart.

Which, of course, causes a bit of a temper tantrum on your part.

You’ve locked yourself in your room, and all manners of yelling from Bianchi-nee and Haru-nee have done nothing to coax you out. It isn’t until Gokudera-nii kicks down the door that you feel true terror in your heart.

He looks  _pissed._

“What the hell,” he enunciates, “are you doing.”

Your fists curl into little balls. “I’m not moving to Italy and leaving Mama and Haru-nee and Kyouko-nee and I-pin behind. You can yell at me all you want, Stupidera, but I'm  _not going_!”

He scans the room, eyes calculating. “You haven’t even packed yet, you little shit. What is this to you, a game?” He grabs the nearest bundle of clothes and throws it at you. “If this room isn’t fucking spotless by this time tomorrow, I am dropping your worthless little cow ass off a cliff. The Tenth can find himself a new Lightning Guardian.”

He’s about to leave when you  _can’t take it anymore._  “Yeah, why doesn’t Tsuna-nii find a new Lightning Guardian?! It’s not like I’m really  _Vongola,_ right? What am I even doing here – ”

You don’t even get to finish your sentence because there’s a sharp  _crack_ in the air from Gokudera’s hand making contact with your face, and you’re reeling back from the pain across your cheek. Glancing up, you see that Gokudera is half in disbelief himself, but recovers quickly. He grabs the front of your shirt.

“I dare you to say that again, you fucking piece of shit,” he growls in your face, teeth bared. “I dare you to say that again when the  _Tenth_ gave you a place in his home and in his family and you don’t even  _fucking_ appreciate it. The Tenth, who gave us all homes and families when we needed it the most. Maybe you just can’t see it because you’re a fucking stupid cow and you've  _been_ here so long that you take it for granted, but dare say that again, dare say that you’re not  _Vongola_ like the rest of us, and I’ll rip your stupid cow tongue off and feed it to my cat.”

He throws you back and stomps out of your room, and you fall back on a pile of clothes, stunned. 

“Remember, this time tomorrow,” you hear his voice echo from halfway down the hall.

 

-

 

(You’re fourteen when you start calling him Hayato-nii.

It catches him by surprise the first time. “Didn’t know we were on such intimate terms,” he mumbles underneath his breath. 

“What are you talking about, Stupidera. We’ve been brothers for years.”

He stays quiet, after that.)

 

-

 

You’re fifteen when the world around you starts falling apart.

And you watch  _him_ fall apart.

(“Hayato-nii, you’re gonna go grey if you keep fussing about like that. Oh, wait,  _HAHA,_  you already are.”

You know something’s wrong when he doesn’t even hit you over the head for that.)

The Vongola move back to the Namimori base, but Namimori doesn’t quite feel so much like  _home_ anymore, not when the man who gave you a home is already gone.

Gokudera locks himself in his room a lot, and you can only imagine the ways in which he’s beating himself up for letting Tsuna go.

He doesn’t talk to you for weeks.

 

-

 

Then there’s one day he knocks on your door. 

“Lambo…”

You open the door slowly, rubbing your eyes as you do so. “What is it, Hayato-nii, I was sleeping.”

He rolls his eyes. “Lazy crybaby.” But his expression softens. “Lambo…if anything happens, please take care of the family.”

You frown. The handgun on his hip isn’t exactly inconspicuous. “What kind of stupid thing is Stupidera planning now.”

He laughs. “Wow, that name sure is a throwback.” He places a hand on your head before turning to leave. “Just promise me, you stupid cow.”

“Wait – Hayato-nii, I’m serious. Tell me, what are you going to do?”

He doesn’t say anything.  _(“I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything,” he says quietly (so quietly that sometimes, when you look back, you think you might’ve imagined it), “but everything will be okay, alright? So don’t worry, and don’t follow me.”)_

 

-

 

His back receding down the hallway is the last you ever see of him.

 

-

 

Until – a few days later –

Gokudera, ten years younger, appears in this world, no worry lines etched into his forehead yet, no scars on his fingers yet from all the knives he’s had to deflect from his neck. A Gokudera untouched by the grief and loss of this age. A Gokudera with joy and energy and radiance in his being, no matter how fierce his scowl.

You can’t help but let a smile break out across your face. This is the Gokudera you’ve grown up with. This is the Gokudera who will pick you up and carry you in his arms without being asked, because he wants to, because he is the only one who knows how to hold you right.

This is the Gokudera you’ve missed so much.

“Hayato-nii – !”


End file.
